Faal Dovahkiin Meyz
by Lord Skye
Summary: Alduin the World-Eater is slain. The Empire has won the Civil War. Every Daedric Prince appeased. Everything is done, and at the center of it all is Josef, the Dragonborn. But now a new threat is rising, a dread lord of the night has risen, and should he prevail, the entire world will die.
1. Fort Dawnguard

Author's Note: Yes it's another Skyrim/ Dawnguard fic! How original, am I right? Anyway, I'm going to try and keep this as close to the dialouge in the game as I can be with my own flair added where I feel it's appropiate. I'm also going to try and update once a week or so and I hope to be able to hold to that. Yes, this is also going to be a pairing but when those bits come I also hope to make it tasteful. I also want to thank two ofmy dear friends for helping me flesh out certain details. You know who you are. Enjoy!

 **Chapter One: Fort Dawnguard**

Josef took a wooden longsword off the weapon rack and then walked in front of the newest crop of recruits who had made their way to Fort Dawnguard. "Now." he said, giving the sword a small twirl in his hands. "One of the most debilitating abilities you'll find vampires using is their drain ability. This saps your life force and heals them, but the real danger is that being affected by this, gives you a small chance to contract the vampiric disease, so learning to defend against this is important." He motioned and one of the recruits, still unused to the weight and fit of his Dawnguard armor came up to him.

"Hold your arm out," Josef instructed, demonstrating. The recruit held his arm out and Josef turned to the rest as he went through the motions. "When you see the arm outstretched like this, they will be using, or will begin to use their vampiric drain." Slowly, so they could see, he grabbed the boy's wrist while side stepping. "Grab the wrist and step to the side, while drawing your weapon." he explained."Then, once the drain is off of you, bring your sword down on the elbow, and, with any luck, you can hack its arm clean off." he tapped his sword on the recruits elbow."It probably won't kill them instantly, but not even a vampire can brush off having a limb hacked off."

He patted the recruit on the back and handed him the wooden sword, pommel first. Though made of wood, they were hollow, with lead in the middle, heavier than a normal sword but when they could wield those with no problem, a normal blade was going to be easy. The armor was the same. It was heavier with extra padding,again a training exercise. When they could move swiftly and effectivley in the 'wrong' armor, the right one would be easy."Now," Josef said, walking back over to the weapon rack and picking up two small daggers. "When it comes to smaller weapons, you have to be quick." He motioned for another recruit to come up. He strode forward and outstretched his hand. "For this technique, you will have to adjust your stance," he instructed. "Whichever hand you see outstretched you want to put the coreesponding foot backwards. Generally they will have their right hand oustrechted like your fellow recruit here. You drop back a step so that your rightlegis back and let them come to you,and trust me, they will. You drop back half a step."Josef did this and then lunged. "So you can put all your weight and momenum into this thrust and you want to drive your first dagger into their palm." He drove the point of the wooden weapon between the recruit's fingers to hold it there. "Leave your blade there and grab their wrist." he grabbed the wrist and then side stepped and foundhimself behind the recruit,lightly bring the blade across the recruits throat. "See?" he asked, stepping back and pushing the recruit away,gently, and taking the wooden dagger back.

"Now," he said. "Last but certainly not least, heavy weapons." He walked over to the rack and picked up a battleaxe. "Who wants to help me with this demonstration?" he said with a slight smirk. "Good, because killing vampires with these doesn't need a step by step instruction." He walked over to the target dummy he had set up, dressed in robes and boots from a vampire he had slain in Whiterun a few weeks before. He regarded it for a moment before he brought his weapon up, above his head and cleaved the dummy in two with a roar worthy of the Dragonborn. He let the weapon drop and turned to his students. "If that doesn't kill them, nothing will... and trust me, it will." He hung up the battleaxe and spoke. "Now I want everyone to pair up and start practicing these techniques. I want each of these moves to be second nature to you so that you can keep your head when facing these things. I want practice until noon. Durak should be around by then for crossbow practice!" He watched as the recuits all went for weapons and began, fumbling through the techniques they had been shown.

He stayed for about half an hour, going to each pair at least twice, making sure they were keeping their footing and balance where they needed to be, and correcting their technique when it was off. He watched them for about an hour as he reflected on his own history with the Dawnguard. It was... spotty at best. When he had first found Isran, he had volunteered to accompany a Vigilantof Stendarr to a place called Dimhollow Crypt. Vampires had been sighted near the cave and reports said they were looking for some long lost vampire artifact. Josef had fought his way into the cave and found what they were looking for. The artifact turned out to be a woman, who called herself Serana.

Josef couldn't help but smile a little when he thought of her. He liked to think that he was past the 'love at first sight' belief but knew for certain that 'lust at first sight' was alive and well, the women of Skyrim had proved that over the last two or three years. He had known a few of them, a couple more than once but none had entranced him like Serana had. Josef had only known her for a short time, but in that time she had proven her right to be alive more time than any other vampire he had ever met, a sentiment that enraged Isran even more than the revelation that he had, not only returned Serana to her father, a vampire, who called himself Lord Harkon, with a magnitude of power so great he could level Fort Dawnguard if he cared to, and had not secured the Elder Scroll she was carrying. Josef was certain that had he been anyone other than the Dragonborn, he would've been skinned alive and his skull given to Gunmar's trolls for general recreation.

He had reapired his relationship with the senior Dawnguard somewhat by recruiting Gunmar, their smith and beast trainer and Sorine Jurard the Dwemer "expert". He had been helping both of them by chasing down Dwemer designs to improve Dawnguard weapons and arms, specifically the crossbows each new member was issued, and by chasing down leads on vampires wandering the provience or infiltrating bandit camps in hopes of turning the entire clan. It felt good, fighting against Lord Harkon, but he knew that one man wasn't going to be able to do much and even though their numbers were growing, they would need dozens, hundredsmore to be anything more than a thorn in the side of Volkihar's side. These thoughts were brought to a halt when he heard heavy sounds of boots against the hard stone floor.

"How's it coming?"asked the gravelly voice of Isran, the commander of the Dawnguard. He stood next to the Imperial and watched the recruits.

"Slowly." said Josf, rubbing the back of his head. "They're still not used to their armor but they're getting better. I've been teaching them some techniques for fighting off the vampire's drain. The wooden weapons Gunmar and I forged are filled with lead. When we can get them live steel, they'll be strong enough to wield them effortlessly."

"Good." Isran responded curtly. "But you and I have something we need to discuss." He turned on his heel and started across the fort, Josef following. "A vampire arrived a few hours ago, asking for you." he explained, leading the Dragonborn upstairs, towards, he realized, the torture room. It made Josef's stomache turn thinking about it, but it was necessary. The best way to break someone was psychology, painful torture eventually just got you told what you wanted to hear to make it stop. Psychological torture made the victim want to help you, but that wasn't an option for vampires. Isran kept going. "This vampire showed up while you were away. I'm guessing it's the one you found in Dimhollow Crypt. Says it's got something really important to say to you." They turned the corner and Josef's eyes went wide. "Solet's hear it." he said to the room's newest occupant.

"You probably weren't expecting to see me again." said Serana.


	2. Serana

Author's Note: This chapter is mostly dialouge, but is necessary to get the ball really rolling. Anyway, I'm going to try and update once a week, hopefully on Friday or Saturday. So far I have a strong, two week tradition of keeping this rate going! Please read, review and enjoy!

 **Chapter Two: Serana**

Not much could rattle the Dragonborn. While exploring the dangerous and deadly Dwemer ruins, digging through Nordic tombs, fighting from the depths of Blackreach to the heights of The Throat of the World, he had seen and experienced many things and not many of those things scared him anymore. Two things still did and one of them is seeing an Elder Scroll. Seeing an Elder Scroll strapped to the back of the daughter of an incredibly powerful vampire wasn't helping matters at all.

And he actually had expected to see Serana again. Not this soon and not, seemingly, on the same side, and certainly not with the Elder Scroll. But here, in the middle of, despite their amateurism, the most concentrated group of vampire hunters in Skyrim, possibly in the Empire, that was surprising. He actually managed to chuckle as he crossed his arms, with some difficulty due to the extra bulky armor and replied. "To be honest, no. What are you doing here?"

"I'd rather not be here either," she began. "But I needed to talk to you. It's important, so please just listen before your friend here loses his patience. It's... well, it's about me. And the Elder Scroll that was buried with me."

"What about you?" Josef asked, sparing a glance at Isran. The Redguard was hard to read, but at this moment he was rather certain he'd want to take the Scroll, strap Serana to the rack and see how many parts he could cut off of her before she turned into a pile of ash and then probably kill him for listening to her for this long. Josef was intrigued though. His own experience with Elder Scrolls told him that they were very powerful and could drive men to do extraordinary things. An Elder Scroll had ended the Dragon War, and had given him the key to defeating Alduin, but, considering what they had done to Septimus, they could also bring great harm.

"The reason I was down there... and why I had the Elder Scroll." she began, pausing and taking a deep breath."It all comes back to my father. I'm guessing you figured this part out already, but my father is not exactly a good person, even by vampire standards.

"He wasn't always like that though." she continued. "There was... a turn. He stumbeled onto this obsecure prophecy and just kind of lost himself in it."

"What do you mean... 'lost himself'" asked Josef. The last prophecy he had seen didn't help prepare for the coming disaster that Skyrim was barely surviving, and even in old tales and songs there was never a prophecy about something good happeneing, until, at least, hundreds or thousands of innocnets had their entire world ruined beyond recovery.

"He just became absorbed... obsessed. It was kind of sick, actually. The prophecy said that vampires would no longer need to fear the sun. For someone who fancied himself as vampire royalty, that's pretty seductive. Anyway, my mother and I didn't feel like inviting a war with all of Tamriel, so we tried to stop him. That's why I was sealed away with the Scroll. " she said.

Josef locked his hands together behind his head for a moment and sighed, watching a thousand images flash through his head. There had been small vampire raids in most of the major cities for a few months now, imaging that, only worse, at all hours was an unsetteling thought. He had to admit that, perverse as it was, as far as plans that psychotic vampires would have, it wasn't the worst. He also couldn't be sure it would invite a war with Tamriel, it had been like pulling teeth to get Ulfric and Tulius to lay down their arms for a month while Alduin was dealt with.

"You took a big risk coming here." he said after a pause. He didn't know what else he could say and was slightly worried that if he stayed too quiet for too long, Isran would take over the conversation and his opening statement would be rending her head in with his warhammer, nor was he sure that Serana's head would be first. Luckily, for all involved, Serana spoke again.

"I did. But something about you makes me think I can trust you. I hope I'm not wrong." she said, to Josef more than Isran. A smile tugged at the corners of the Imperial's mouth hearing that but a small, annoying, voice in the back of his head spoke up.

 _'She's a vampire Josef,'_ it said in it's smug little tone. _'She's the enemy.'_ He forced it out though. If he ever listened to his subconscious for more than a short time, another voice started to speak up, and given what was standing in front of him, he wasn't eager to entertain what was always bubbling under the surface.

"No, you're right. We just have to convince the others you're on our side." Josef responded, quieting the voices in his head. That was going to be a difficult task. Josef was well know and, more often than not, quite popular in Skyrim, but in Fort Dawnguard, even someone like him started low. Isran made sure of that and Josef was thankful for it. Everyone he had met since he started killing dragons were eager to thrust him into leadership positions without having to do much to prove himself, and not being handed command of the Dawnguard after speaking a few times with Isran was refreshing.

"Well, let's move then. I'm nothing if not persuasive. " Serana said with a slight grin on her face. Josef had to admit she had spirit and confidence if nothing else. It hadn't shown here but she also had a decent command over magic. There brief encounters with dragur in Dimhallow Crypt had proven that. All in all, she was a fine specimen. He was about to speak before Isran finally spoke. Josef had almost forgotten the Redguard was there, before his gravelery voice reminded everyone.

"All right, you've heard what it has to say." the commander of the Dawnguard said. "Now tell me, is there any reason I shouldn't kill this bloodsucking fiend right now?" Josef's head shot to Isran, anger in his eyes.

"Isran." he said. "A word." He walked a little away from Serana and turned his back, while speaking to his commander.

"You've heard what it has to say." he said gruffly. "Can you honestley give me a reason not to put it's pretty little head on a spike, take the Scroll and get back to what we're supposed to be doing?"

"Isran..." Josef said. "Listen to me, when I took her home, her father wase static to see her. Mainly for the Elder Scroll, but there was something else there too. She's as essential to his plan as the Scroll is."

"You're not making case for sparing her Josef." he said.

"No, but this should." the Imperial countered. "There were close to thirty vampires in that castle. All heavily armed and armored. Isran, if Harkon doesn't know where she and the Scroll is now, he will shortly. And if he finds out that we killed her and have the Scroll, he is going to bring everything he has in his castle down on us and Isran...". Josef looked at him, slowly shaking his head. "We cannot stand against that. Not yet."

"You could." Isran said almost immediatly. The moment the words were out of the commander's mouth though, if looks could kill, Isran would be dead and gone almost in the same instant.

"No Isran." Josef said in a cold dead voice. "Not that, not ever again."

Isran gave him a cold hard stare back. He towered over the Imperial, but he knew, better than most, what kind of power boiled under that man. He turned on his heel and marched back to Serana, Josef following him.

"Don't feel like a guest, because you're not." Isran began, speaking to Serana like she was scum, which to him, Josef was sure she was. "You're a resource. You're an asset. In the meantime, don't make me regret my sudden outburst of tolerance and generosity, because if you do, your friend here is going to pay for it."

"Thank you for your kindess," Serana responded, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'll remember it the next time I'm feeling hungry."

The Imperial gave an almost silent chuckle. 'Cute and funny,' he found himself thinking. 'Still a vampire Josef.' the voice continued. Before he or Isran could say anything next, Serana turned to Josef and spoke again.

"So, in case you didn' tnotice the giant thing on my back, I have the Elder Scroll with me." she said, indicating the object of cosmic power."Whatever it says, it will have something that can help us stop my father. But of course," Serana continued. "Neither of us can read it."

That was both true and false for Josef. He had, in a way, read an Elder Scroll to learn the Dragonrend Shout. But the time he had foolishly opened it he had been struck blind for about an hour. Also, the Runed Lexicon he had gotten for Septimus was as incomprehensible as the man's book about the Elder Scrolls. Without help, whatever information Serana had, was going to stay in that Scroll.

"Who can?" he asked. He didn't expect Isran or Serana to know but if they did, he would take it.

"Well, the Moth Priests are the only ones I've heard of who can do it." Serana responded. Josef smiled, she was impressing him more and more. "They spend years preparing before they start reading, though. Not that this helps us anyway, because they're all half a continent away in Cyrodiil." Josef was about to sigh and mention how trudging back to Cyrodiil was the last thing he wanted to do when Isran spoke up.

"Some Imperial scholar arrived in Skyrim a few day ago." he sid. "I was staking out the road when I saw him pass by. Maybe that's your Moth Priest."

"Do you know where he's staying now?" Serana asked, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that this man's blood boiled everytime she opened her mouth.

"No." Isran responded curtly. "And I'm not going to waste men looking. We're fighting a war against your kind, and I intend to win it. You want to find him, try talking to anyone who'd meet a traveler. Innkeepers and carriage drivers in the big cities maybe. But you're on your own."

"Any idea how you're going to find a Moth Priest?" Serana asked the Imperial. "Skyrim's a pretty big place."

"Where would a Moth Priest actually go?" he asked. He didn't know of any great repository of Elder Srolls, save the one he had, safely tucked away where no one would ever look, guarded by things no one would ever cross.

"Well," Serana began. "Back before I... you know. The College of Winterhold was the first place I'd think to go for any kindof magic or historical thing. The wizards know about all kinds of things that people probably shouldn't know about." She paused for a moment before speaking again. "Actually, now that I think of it... I'm going to come along with you. I've been really wanting to get out and explore a bit."

Josef smiled and slightly bowed. "Well then my lady," he said holding out his hand. "Come with me."


	3. The New Skyrim

**Chapter Three: The New Skyrim**

Josef led Serana through Fort Dawnguard like it was a second home. The fortress was enormous, built in the Second Era to house a vampire, fate, it seemed, had a sense of irony. The Dawnguard wasn't an army but Isran led it like one. Most of the rank and file vampire hunters slept in a barracks style, but the senior officers had their own room. As they arrived at his door he spoke. "I just need to grab a few things and then we can go."

The room was very spartan. Stone floor with stone walls, cracks and exposed stone aplenty. The furniture was also very scarce and worn. Aside from a double bed, with only some furs for blankets, he had an armor stand, weapons rack, a trunk at the foot of his bed and a small desk with a knapsack on it and a map of Skyrim, with so many marks on it, it was almost impossible to read. He sat on the bed and began taking off his boots. "If we're going to head to the Mages College," he said, staring to undo his tunic. "We'll have to head north; through the Rift and Eastmarch just to reach the hold. Probably another day once we're there, about three days total." At this point he had nothing on but a simple loincloth, his exposed skin, complete with all the scars, burns and muscles he had gained fighting, dragons, deadra, Stormcloaks, bandits and, most recently, vampires, bare for any too see.

Serana had to try to keep her eyes from wandering too much. She had seen Josef's combat prowess first hand when they duo escaped Dimhollow Crypt so she already knew he was strong, but seeing the rippling muscle under that armor and the marks he had gotten earning them was something else. Something did draw her gaze though. When Josef turned around to take his official Dawnguard armor off the rack, she was greeted by the sight of, three very large, and, judging by the size of the scars, very deep, claw marks. Her orange eyes went wide and couldn't remain silent, seeing her savior so marred. "What happened to you?"

Josef turned around to look at her, frowning."What do you mea-" he stopped, a smirk appearing on his face. "Ah," he said. "You mean my souvenir back there?" He pulled a simple black linen tunic on and turned around to face the vampiress. "That was from Nahagliiv."

"Nahagliiv?" she said slowly. "Who... or what was that?"

"Nahagliiv..." Josef said, lacing up the tunic and starting to work the fastenings on his armor. "Nahagliiv was a dragon." There was a pause before Serana spoke again.

"A dragon?" she said, obviously skeptical.

"Yes," he said simply, fastening his armor nice and tight, moving over the weapon rack, grabbing a Dawnguard hatchet, a crossbow and a quiver of bolts. He turned to his vampiric charge, again struck by her beauty. "Dragons have returned."

"I heard some of my father's court say as much..." she said, almost in awe. "But I didn't think they were serious... you fought one?"

"More than one." he said, rolling up the map and grabbing his bag. "Killed a couple too but," he said in response to her eyes going wide. "I've had help." He felt slightly bad, not informing her that he was the Dragonborn, but not even the Dawnguard, save Isran, and maybe one or two of the others really knew that. It was refreshing to have someone along who didn't know.

A few hours later, the duo was a ways away from Fort Dawnguard and was deep in the wilderness of the Rift. Josef had counseled staying away from the main roads as much as possible, partly to avoid any prying eyes, vampire or otherwise, and also to show off the wild beauty of his favorite part of Skyrim. The thick forests offered good hunting and several rare alchemical ingredients and the local wildlife kept most of the bandits and highway away, but mostly he liked it for the wild nature. The land was largely untamed, especially so near the mountain border to Morrowind and the raw countryside eased the second beast that coursed through his veins. Since he had joined the Dawnguard, it had been very agitated, as it always had been around vampires, but here it was easier to keep buried, easier to control.

"This place is beautiful," remarked Serana, breaking the silence. "I think I'd live here if I could stand the sun enough."

Josef smiled. "Yes, me too. I mean, I can stand the sun no problem, but this has to be the nicest part of Skyrim." He looked at his black clad counterpart, admiring her just a little more than he should have, but she was so damn beautiful, especially when she was smiling, and spoke. "Has it changed much from the last time you were… awake?"

"I…" Serana began. "We didn't really leave the castle much. My father sent his minions out into Skyrim and sometimes High Rock to gather new thralls. Even before we were vampires we were very secluded. Daedra worshippers don't get out much." She stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at Josef, worried for a moment as she realized she mentioned that she worshipped a Deadra. Before she was turned, the few people she had met never really found out about that. It wasn't something you could casually mention, but for some reason she felt so comfortable around Josef, like she could tell him anything.

Josef did notice the way her voice cut off and decided that he should save her. "Yes, I would've built my house out here if I was allowed. I offered them a princely cum for the land, but they wouldn't sell."

"You built a house?" Serana asked.

He nodded. "Over in Falkreath." He said tilting his head to the west. "Right on the lake. It's nice, when it's not being attacked by giants, wolves or giant spiders. And when it is, my housecarl and I can take care of it."

"First dragons and now giants?" Serana said with a friendly dose of fake awe in her voice. "Next you'll be telling me that you, single handedly took down an army!"

Josef bit his bottom lip."How about just the general and second in command of one?" he asked. Serana stopped dead in her tracks.

"You're kidding." She said. Josef was impressive she knew and she remembered the warrior culture of Skyrim from her time as a human, but he had to be exaggerating this time, didn't he?

"Ulfric Stormcloak and Galmar Stone Fist." He said. "The Jarl of Windhelm and the high general of the Stormcloak army, dead by my hand securing Skyrim's continued allegiance to the Empire."

Serana frowned. "The Empire…" she said, skepticism lacing her voice. "From down in Cyrodil right?"

"Yes," Josef answered. "I suppose I owe you a bit of an explanation. Just know that I'm prone to exaggeration and outlandish lies." He flashed her, his trademark grin before beginning. "Near the end of the Second Age there was a man from Atmora, far to the north, called Talos…"

For the next few hours, as they left the Rift and made their way into Eastmarch, Josef recounted, to his child of the night, the story of Talos, his conquest of Tamriel and his reign as Tiber Septim. He went on also to tell the story of the Eternal Champion, the Hero of Daggerfall, the Nerevarine, the Hero of Kvatch, the Great War and, as the red ripples of dawn appeared over the horizon, the tale of the Last Dragonborn, being careful to leave out that it was him.

"And so," he said, sighing. "Upon his return, the Last Dragonborn rode to Solitude and reported to the Jarl that Alduin, the World Eater was slain. Then, as far as anyone knows, he left the city, and disappeared down the road." He looked over at Serana smiling. "And that, Serana, is that." It wasn't an entire lie. He did give a report of his victory to Jarl Elisif and General Tullius, and gave the general his two cents on a second war with the Dominion, and that the first move should be to contact Hammerfall and begin repairing that relationship, but he had simply rode to his home in Falkreath for a few weeks until Durak had come across him, recruiting for the Dawnguard.

Serana, was almost sad to hear the stories end. She was a mix of happy and sad, she had been asleep long before this Talos had come into the picture. The entire world had been rocked and on the brink of destruction numerous times while she slept away the ages. She hated her father for forcing that to happen but at the same time she was pleased, but it wasn't just because of having someone to tell her a bedtime story. Something about Josef made her feel like everything was going to be alright.

They were in a less visually pleasing part of Skyrim now. The volcanic tundra of Eastmarch had a rugged harsh beauty to it, but the giants, wildlife and the ever present possibility of dragons made Josef a little wary of travelling through it, especially with Serana in to. Also, the red ripples of dawn were starting to peek over the horizon, they'd have to rest soon.

"Dawn's coming." Josef commented. "We're gonna have to rest a bit. I'm going to guess the sun isn't great for your skin."

"You catch on quick." Serana said back, smirking. "Is there anywhere here though, it's awfully… flat."

Josef took out his map and examined it in the moonlight for a bit before facing towards the mountains and smiling. "There's a couple of old forts and ruins." He said. "But the Legion's garrisoned a lot of them. They like me, but they might not be excited about a vampire bunking with them. But here." He said pointing at one of the many dots on the map. "The Eldergleam Sanctuary, secluded, covered and not too far, come on."

About twenty minutes later the duo entered the "cave" mouth and headed inside. During his first trip here, with his old Housecarl, Lydia, he hadn't spent much time exploring or truly appreciating the natural wonder around him. Rich plant life, melodious sounds of water running and, of course, the Eldergleam itself, its roots finally returned to their rightful position. It made him feel a little guilty about what he had done his first time here, but when he thought of the Gildergreen in Whiterun, he felt it was worth it. He led Serana, also enraptured by the natural beauty of the glade, around a corner to a small alcove and dropped his pack. He sat down, glad for a rest and unpacked some of the food he had gotten.

"Can you…" he asked Serana. "I mean do you… eat… food?"

The vampiress took a moment to responded, drinking deeply from a flask she had produced from her cloak. "I can…" she said, baring, accidentally the Dragonborn assumed, her red tinted teeth. "But it doesn't sustain me or give me any nourishment." She looked at the fruit, bread and salted meats her savior had in his pack. "I wouldn't say no to some apples though." She added.

Josef chuckled a bit and handed her two, along with half a loaf of bread, taking the other half for himself with some hard cheese and a few strips of salted pork. The duo ate in relative silence, exchanging a few empty sentences before the food was gone and their bedrolls were laid out. By this time, Jose was stripped out of his armor, clad only in a pair of ragged trousers and the black tunic he wore under his armor. Serana was already in her bedroll when Josef stood up.

"I'm going to have a look around." He said before starting to take a step away from their little camp when Serana spoke.

"Don't go." She said, looking up at him. Whether or not it was intentional, he could see the plea in her glowing orange eyes. "Please?"

Josef nodded and sat back down, laying down next to her. "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere."


End file.
